Lessons learned from Las Vegas’ 2017 expansion draft as the Seattle Kraken builds a team
When the NHL Expansion Draft takes place on July 21, the Seattle Kraken will follow the same rules as the Las Vegas Golden Knights in 2017.
Come draft day, the Kraken will select a player from 30 of the 31 NHL teams — excluding Vegas — and ultimately choose a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. The draft will go a long way toward the creation of Seattle’s roster for its inaugural season.
For the Golden Knights, that first year was one to remember. Not only was Vegas the first team in league history to sweep its first playoff series in its inaugural season, but it was also the third team to win multiple playoff series. The Golden Knights ultimately became the third NHL team to reach the Stanley Cup Finals in its first season, following the Toronto Arenas (1918) and the St. Louis Blues (1968).
Vegas lost to the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final, but its 13 postseason wins broke the record for the most wins by an expansion team in its first playoff appearance. The Golden Knights were an instant success, and they’ve now reached the playoffs all four years of their existence.
But even though the Expansion Draft rules are the same, following Vegas’ path won’t be easy for the Kraken. That’s because the NHL’s general managers likely learned a few lessons from 2017.
Teams can only protect seven forwards, three defenseman and one goalie or eight skaters and one goalie from being selected in the draft. That list is due July 17. That leaves plenty of talented players unprotected. Because of that, as pointed out by The Associated Press, some of the deals made with Vegas five years ago stemmed from fear.
Take Marc-Andre Fleury as an example. The former Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender willingly waived his no trade and no movement clauses in 2017, which left him exposed for the Expansion Draft. Before the draft, the Penguins also traded their second-round pick in the 2020 Entry Draft as an incentive for Vegas to select Fleury and relieve Pittsburgh of his nearly $6 million cap hit.
Due to salary cap issues, the Florida Panthers also traded Reilly Smith to Vegas in exchange for a fourth-round pick and the Knights selecting Jonathan Marchessault in the Expansion Draft.
Fleury made the All-Star Game in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and he was stellar for the Golden Knights in their 2018 postseason run. In 2021, he won the William M. Jennings trophy, which is given to the goaltender for the team with the fewest goals allowed. He also won the Vezina Trophy for players judged to be the best at their position.
During his first season with the Golden Knights, Smith scored a career-high 60 points in the regular season and added five goals and 17 assists in the postseason. In 2021, Smith became Vegas’ alternate captain.
In 2018. Marchessault scored 75 points in the regular season and 21 in the playoffs. He led the team in postseason scoring with eight goals. In 2021, Marchessault scored his first career playoff hat trick for Vegas against the Colorado Avalanche, which helped the Golden Knights even the series 2-2.
While there will always be difficult decisions to make, Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill told The AP that general managers learned some hard lessons in 2017.
“We might get to a situation where we’re like, ‘Boy I don’t want to lose any of these guys,’ so a team may have to do it again,” Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill told The AP. “But we’ve lived it now and I think we’ll have a better understanding of it. And if you’re going to [make a trade], you’re going to make sure it’s for the right person. You’re going to be like: ‘I’m giving up a lot of assets here. Is this the right thing to do?”’
With years to prepare for this expansion draft, it’s less likely that general managers will be forced to unload so many quality players to clear salary-cap space. And when that issue does arise, 2017 showed that dealing almost exclusively with the expansion team has consequences.
Because teams focused so heavily on making deals with Vegas instead of each other, they sent a windfall of young talent and high draft picks to the Golden Knights. This time around, SBNation wrote that teams could focus more heavily on dealing with each other. If teams are up against salary cap, Seattle doesn’t have to be the only option.
We’ll find out soon enough just how different teams will handle the draft this time around. But no matter the strategy, both the Kraken and the rest of the league have difficult decisions ahead.
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
